Potts Grove and The Ephrata Cloister

Last weekend, my Mom and I went on our monthly field trip. We went east again to The Potts Grove Manor and The Ephrata Cloister.

Me in one of the Cloister's homes.

The town of Ephrata was founded by Conrad Beissel who came to the United States in 1760. In Conestoga, PA, he became affiliated with the Brethren Church. He was appointed leader but ended up resigning. He moved west and settled by the Cocalico Creek east of Lancaster, PA with the intention of being a hermit the rest of his life. He was soon followed by many who saw him as a charismatic leader. Together they formed their own denomination. They had theology pulled from nearly every group Conrad Beissel was a member of or was influenced by: the Catholic Church, Lutheran Church, the Mystics, Pietists, Brethren, and he had his own ideas as well. He believed that when he died he was going to go to heaven and literally MARRY God. So, he thought, "Why get married on earth?" He demanded that the members of his Cloister remain celibate and never marry.

This building is the "Saar" or the Home of the Sisterhood: AKA The Women's Dormitory. The Brotherhood was burnt down.

I REALLY enjoyed visiting the cloister and learning the History of the place! It was absolutely FASCINATING!!!!

Basically the people who lived here slept for 4 hours a day and Prayed for about 10 hours a day, and worked the rest of the time. They ate only one meal a day and that only consisted of vegetables. They believed that eating meat would make you carnal and have wicked desires.

This picture is really blurry, but I was only allowed to take pictures without the flash. This is one of the "sisters" bedrooms. That "Bed" is made out of a board, and for a pillow, they used a wooden block, so that they wouldn't be TOO comfortable when they slept. They believed that the more comfort you had, the more dreams you had when you slept, and dreaming was a form of Satanic oppression...

After Conrad Beissel died, the whole cloister went downhill. Peter Miller tried to keep it going, but not to many people were interested in living that sort of lifestyle...(I wonder why?????)

Not to mention the fact that they were all dying off since they didn't believe in getting married and having children.

This is Peter Miller's gravestone. As you can see, it was snowing that day!!! :-D

I really enjoyed going there, because its such a STRANGE place! Sorry about the huge History lesson, but the whole place makes no sense without some background first...

Not that it eve makes sense now...:-)

This is John Pott's home. He was a fairly normal guy in the 1700's. We just went to look at the house. I wasn't allowed to take pictures inside though....

So there you have it! That's what I've been up to!

Oh, and the Christmas decorations are up!:-D

Well, I hopefully didn't bore you to bad! Hope you all have a wonderful weekend!